Westpac

Westpac Group (“Westpac”) is a financial services company with operations in Australia, New Zealand (NZ), the United Kingdom (UK) & the near Pacific region & maintains offices in other key financial centres around the world. Westpac is ranked in the top 5 listed companies by market capitalisation on the Australian Securities Exchange. In 2017, Westpac maintained its position as the most sustainable bank globally in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) Review. This marks the fourth year in a row and 10th time that Westpac has achieved the global banking sector leadership position, and the 16th year in a row that Westpac has been recognised as a global banking leader.

2017 marks almost a decade since Westpac released its first climate change action plan and over this time it has continued to integrate the consideration of climate-related risks and opportunities into its strategy and risk management processes. Building on extensive stakeholder consultation and climate change scenario analysis, Westpac released its third Climate Change Position Statement and 2020 Action Plan in May 2017, which was approved by the Group Executive & Westpac Board. Key actions include:
• $10 billion target for lending to climate change solutions by 2020 and $25 billion by 2030.
• Facilitate up to $3 billion in climate change solutions by 2020, e.g. green bond issuance and arrangement.
• Financing for any new thermal coal projects limited to existing coal producing basins and where the calorific value of coal meets the energy content of at least 6,300kCal/kg Gross as Received – i.e. projects must rank in the top 15% globally.
• Commitment to actively reduce the emissions intensity of the power generation sector, targeting 0.30 tCO2e/MWh by 2020.
• Continued commitment to a broad market-based price on carbon as the most efficient way to encourage emissions reductions at the lowest cost to the economy